I have written poetry for a long time as a method of therapy to deal with my episodes of depression that I have experienced since I was in my late teens. I had a counselling session with a psychologist once that recommended it. In recent years, I have not spent that much time thinking about or writing poetry, but recently, as my mental health issues have resurfaced in greater force, such as I have not experienced in several years, within the last few months due to some major changes in my life, I decided there I needed to renew my practice of poetry. The Bible speaks about "the renewing of your mind" in Romans 12:2, and as I feel keeping mine fit has been a big challenge in the recent past, I decided I needed to engage in renewing my mind and seeking the wholeness I have been longing for. I am thankful to not suffer from a condition serious enough to require medication (qualified counsellors confirm); when I have extremely high stress, I tend to experience depression based on the circumstances at the time and poetry is one of the coping mechanisms that helped me in the past.
I have long debated whether I should publish anything related to mental health. It's a topic dear to me, and feel that it's necessary to keep the conversation flowing about these topics in my own little way of trying to reduce the stigma. What if I can't find a job? But I've never missed a day of work in the past for emotional reasons and barely even took a sick day when physically ill. Hopefully that would speak for me, but there are still a lot of people that do not understand what it is like and so I hope I can somehow help the conversations about mental health going.
Please be aware that sharing poetry in a public forum is scary because it is often an expression of my innermost thoughts, often fleeting moments in which the thoughts perish the moment at which I write them down. That is why I need to write them, that I might help the healing process for my mind. Among the things I'm doing to promote this renewal, I came across a book called Compassion Haiku, and I decided that I would write my own haikus based on the daily haiku and readings from the book. I hope that this will be the beginning of the process of making the words flow again, words I need to write, words I need to translate from my depths to the external world. To make myself accountable and make sure I do this, I decided to create this blog so that if anyone decides to follow me, they would know when I did not update my posts and keep up as I planned to do.
I am behind on publishing this blog only because I was away for the holidays and so I started writing poems on the new year before I even decided I would blog about it. I'll catch myself up to today's date (Jan 4) and then hopefully will be vigilant about posting one a day. I cannot guarantee they will all be good, but I hope they will help some others as they help me. I have decided to add photos I have taken so the page doesn't look so lonely.
January 1
I have long debated whether I should publish anything related to mental health. It's a topic dear to me, and feel that it's necessary to keep the conversation flowing about these topics in my own little way of trying to reduce the stigma. What if I can't find a job? But I've never missed a day of work in the past for emotional reasons and barely even took a sick day when physically ill. Hopefully that would speak for me, but there are still a lot of people that do not understand what it is like and so I hope I can somehow help the conversations about mental health going.
Please be aware that sharing poetry in a public forum is scary because it is often an expression of my innermost thoughts, often fleeting moments in which the thoughts perish the moment at which I write them down. That is why I need to write them, that I might help the healing process for my mind. Among the things I'm doing to promote this renewal, I came across a book called Compassion Haiku, and I decided that I would write my own haikus based on the daily haiku and readings from the book. I hope that this will be the beginning of the process of making the words flow again, words I need to write, words I need to translate from my depths to the external world. To make myself accountable and make sure I do this, I decided to create this blog so that if anyone decides to follow me, they would know when I did not update my posts and keep up as I planned to do.
I am behind on publishing this blog only because I was away for the holidays and so I started writing poems on the new year before I even decided I would blog about it. I'll catch myself up to today's date (Jan 4) and then hopefully will be vigilant about posting one a day. I cannot guarantee they will all be good, but I hope they will help some others as they help me. I have decided to add photos I have taken so the page doesn't look so lonely.
January 1
Much of life has passed
In jealousy abounding
Time to make life new
 |
| Pennsylvania 2014 |
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